By Marco Martiniello

Team: Turner, Thomas, Martiniello, Mulholland (c), Lees, Bajraktari, Dixon, Murray, Swartjes, McInnes and Reilly.

Subs: Haddad.

Scorers: Murray.

MOM: Dixson.

Another unusual lovely Spring day for this very important game on our way towards promotion. It was clear before the game and we were extremely motivated and focused despite the absence of some key players. However, we also knew that it would not be an easy challenge for 2 reasons. Firstly, the pitch was in awful condition: hard, dry, bumpy and full of holes. Extremely difficult to play our passing football on such a surface! Secondly, the opposition, who had a few excellent results in the previous weeks, had not come to Nekker to enjoy the sun. They had clearly the intention to go back home with one point at least.

The game started on a rather slow pace probably because of the heat. We were very well organized in each line. The defence was very tight, giving almost nothing away. The midfield was working very hard both to control the opposition and to organize our offensive actions. The two strikers did not save their efforts to try and make space in a well-organized defence.

The game was quite closed. We patiently hold possession of the ball without creating many chances but we knew it would come soon or later. And eventually the sparkle came out of Murray's' let foot just before half time. A wonderful strike fro outside the box left the Elisabeth's keeper useless. For most of us, it was clearly 1-0. Willy Swartjes was very happy that we had managed to preserve the 0-0 of the beginning until the pause!

We started the second half with the same positive spirit after having brought in Fady Haddad for Mark Reilly. Swartjes moved up front while Fady took his pace in the left midfield. Elisabeth was giving us a hard time. They tried to put some pressure but they really never looked like scoring. We created a few clear chances. The clearest one came with a lovely cross form the right by the Tirana Star. Our Beirut Stallion was left totally unmarked in the box but for some bizarre reason he did not manage to put the ball in for what would have been the end of the game.

Never mind, we continued to control the game without taking risks and the game finished with a well-deserved but difficult 1-0 victory for most of us, a 0-0 draw for Willy.